Tibor Mascari

Tibor Mascari worked on his Honors thesis with Dr. Ksenia Tonyushkina and Stefanie Krug studying the development of thyrotropes in the pituitary gland. A new transgenic zebrafish line Tg(tsh:gfp) allows us to observe and quantify thyroid-stimulating hormone (tsh) expressing thyrotropes in living embryos and larvae. Tibor's research is currently focused on quantifying the normal growth in thyrotrope cell numbers during embryonic and larval development. This work will allow an examination of how embryonic stressors, including hypoxia and hypo-thryoid conditions, affect thryotrope differentiation.